If you are among the millions of Canadians beating yourself up over the floppy bits and hanging parts confronting you in the mirror, it might be time to knock it off. There are a lot of bucks to be made keeping you overweight or obese. And your own genes might be your worst enemy in your battle with your bulge.

Who is to blame for abetting your girth and all that fat, salt and sugar? U.S government subsidies to corn farmers who sell their products to Big Food to squeeze out high-fructose corn syrup and fast-food purveyors.

As well, urban planners build communities with no sidewalks and no place to walk to. Automobiles are made to seem as chic objects of devotion. Industrial food overloads even yogurt with sugar, fruit juice is sweeter than soft drinks and packaged foods scream “fibre” and “whole grain” but small print reveals a preponderance of sugars and fat.

The U.S weight-loss market is said to be worth $60 billion a year, although most diets and weight-loss programs have short-lived success. TV blasts sedentary souls with the need to consume foods that hurt. Remember the Olympic bombardment of commercials for Oreo cookies, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola — all engineered to light up your pleasure centres?

And then there are the screens. Cellphones, tablets, TVs and computers obviate even a stroll to and through the mall and the Cineplex, or anywhere for that matter, as we stare transfixed at glowing devices, order goods online and stream videos and film a few feet from our kitchens.

Then there are your once virtuous, now traitorous genes, programmed in millenniums gone by to calorie load and retain fat.

Increasingly, those that study the killer epidemic wrought by bad calories say don’t blame the victim.

“One hundred million years of evolutions has taught us to eat food with high calories. … There’s much more to it than kill yourself in the gym and don’t eat.”

Ahmed El-Sohemy, associate professor, Canada Research Chair in Nutrigenomics at the University of Toronto, says “It’s a harsh environment. The more I look into it, the more complex it would appear.”

You might sip a cola and say it’s too sweet, says El-Sohemy, while your partner might take a sip and find heaven in a straw, his pleasure centre doing cartwheels as if he’s snorted a line of cocaine.

For those fighting fat and associated risks of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, increased inflammation, cancer, arthritis, and liver disease, it might be some comfort to know you might not be in control of controlling your weight. But for those looking toward a long life, giving in to the forces of fructose and french fries is not an option.

“You never see an obese 90-year-old in the morgue,” a pathologist once told Barry Greenberg, strategy director at Toronto’s Dementia Research Alliance.

Obesity bumps up inflammation and therefore diseases like arthritis. Now scientists are actively pursuing research into its possible links to dementia and Alzheimer’s, Greenberg says.

Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health.

A World Health Organization report blames obesity for one-fifth of the world’s premature deaths. In 2008, more than 1.4 billion adults, 20 and older, were overweight. Of these more than 200 million men and nearly 300 million women were obese.

Obesity is preventable, WHO says, but when you wheel your cart through the supermarket how hard is it to decide between chickens on sale for $5 or $6 or a slice of farmed salmon for $13 that will feed two?

And when the kids scream burger, fries and cola, it’s challenging to counter with carrot sticks, whole grain pasta and spring water.

Patrick Lee, a pensive, 51-year-old prop maker in Montreal, has thrown down the gauntlet and is attacking the excess 75 pounds he’s been wearing.

He says he’s been pudgy much of his life, but refuses to see himself as a victim of corporate greed, cheap food or advertising.

He’s kicked his butter jones after going through a pound a week, he says, and climbed on the elliptical trainer and the weight machines. It’s a slog, but he says he got sick of looking at himself in the mirror. He lost six pounds in the first two weeks of kick-starting the new Lee.

“I’m don’t feel a victim,” says Lee. “I know the system is there to victimize us. I feel I’m a victim of myself. I’ve always felt it was up to me to take control of my life.”

Lee says food always meant comfort. There were fewer taboos associated with it than other vices and he reflects that it might be a substitute for the motherly love he says he missed out on. “That’s where a lot of it comes from,” Lee adds.

“I look at myself in the mirror and I tell myself I love myself and give myself a real sense of worth. … Am I sad because I’m fat or fat because I’m sad? Well, it’s neither. I’m both fat and sad. So what am I going to do about it?”

Jordan Lebel, a marketing professor at Montreal’s Concordia University, sits on the Scientific Committee for Obesity Prevention at the Quebec government’s Institut national de santé publique, to develop solutions to obesity.

“Americans are only starting to come to terms with the fact that the U.S. dream is only barely accessible,” says the former chef. “And food is the last legal, moral, accessible pleasure that you can afford to help you cope.”

Lebel has struggled with his weight much of his life and now works out and tries to eat well.

“I’ve used food as an affordable crutch,” he says.

“Food was my solace, my comfort. Part of my brain says it’s all about self-control. There’s so much pressure to perform, to deliver.

“You get home, you spent an hour and a half on the bridge, your boss gave you a hard time for not making your numbers and you’re going to tear open a bag of chips and pop open a beer.”

HelpGuide.org, a non-profit website addressing health issues, says: “When eating is your primary emotional coping mechanism — when your first impulse is to open the refrigerator whenever you’re upset, angry, lonely, stressed, exhausted, or bored — you get stuck in an unhealthy cycle where the real feeling or problem is never addressed.”

Dr. George Tasca, research chair in psychotherapy research at the University of Ottawa and the Ottawa Hospital, is studying inexpensive therapy options for overeating and binge eating.

He says those who are obese tend to be more depressed than others, which complicates the weight-loss process.

Tasca encourages people not to diet, but to eat three meals a day. He says the most helpful tool in shedding pounds might be “a group of loved ones.”

“Someone to say, ‘Let’s go for a walk,’ even if it’s only for 10 minutes or to go to the supermarket with you to encourage you make healthy choices.”

Chris Lannon heads up the McGill Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics. Theirs is a difficult task, trying to get all the players — industry, health, government, urban planning, and fast food — to the table to agree on a strategy to reduce obesity.

“Everyone has a role to play,” Lannon says. “The easy thing to do is to blame industry. They’re only part of the equation.”

As people eat healthier, industry will adapt or go out of business, he says.

“We’re programmed to crave salt, sugar and fat. They are needs that need to be met. If we don’t meet that craving, we overeat.”

But, Lannon says, “People can modify their behaviour. The challenge is to maintain that.” Altering global dynamics that contribute to obesity is near overwhelming, but there are encouraging signs, says El-Sohemy.

California is putting warnings on sweet drinks. Mexico is taxing them as are 33 U.S. states and France. The business press is reporting Coca-Cola’s North American sales are falling.

The U.S. announced last month more rigorous labelling on food packages, including more prominent displays of calories and sugar content.

And a U.S. report released in January shows a significant reduction in obesity among children two to five years old, when obesity patterns can be determined for life.

Your genes might not be your best friend and industry is working hard to get you to indulge in inexpensive excess — selling cheap salt, fat and sugar-loaded food means big profit — but in the end, says El-Sohemy, “We’re all individuals.”

How do you measure up?

BMI, or Body Mass Index, is the most common measure of whether an adult’s weight is within a “normal” range or is considered overweight or obese.

Weight loss is often promoted as a simple equation. Less calories in, more calories out equals weight reduction. It is important, though, to remember that not all calories are equal.

1 cup of whole grain pasta = 174 calories

1 cup cola drink = 182 calories

The pasta and the beverage have almost equal number of calories, yet the pasta with its nutrients and fibre will nourish and aid health; the cola has empty calories that promote a drop of blood sugar and encourage excessive eating.

So it is not necessarily a question of how many calories you eat but rather what kind of calories. Sugars and fructose in fruit juice, soft drinks, candy, and processed foods — from salad dressing to peanut butter — are best avoided. Sugars in fruit, with the exception of grapes, which have insufficient quantities of fibre to mitigate the sugar, are healthy because they are ingested with fibre, which promotes health and a feeling of fullness. Eat oranges and apples as opposed to drinking orange and apple juice.

Eating proper fat, from olive oil, for example, is said to increase the feeling of fullness and help reduce the amount you eat. So dressing your salad with a little olive oil, rather than a store-bought dressing, can in fact promote weight loss. Our bodies require fat.

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